1-72
Academy Hurricane IIc
by
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Steve Bamford
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Hello, fellow modelers. This time I’d
like to share with you my Hawker Hurricane Mk. IIc in
1-72nd scale from Academy.
The Academy rendition of the Hurricane
has received mixed reviews, highlighting its good level of detail and its good
fit on one hand, and its shape inaccuracies (mostly on the nose part) on the
other. I will only add that Academy missed the rear-view mirror on top of the
windshield (a prominent feature of the Hurricane, in my humble opinion,) the underwing drop tanks and their pylons (at least for the nightfighter version) and the “The Nightingale” banner
decal (also for the nightfighter version.)
I’d like to point out also that the sky
color of the code letters and the fuselage band decals for the day-fighter
version is wrong, and that the decals (in general) were slightly out of
register (at least in my sample kit,) this fact regrettably could only be seen
after removing the decals from their white backing paper (I had to retouch the
edges of the roundels and the fin flashes with paint to hide an annoying white
border.)
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My build was mostly OOB. I chose to build
the nightfighter version ‘LK - ?’ because I haven’t
built a nightfighter for more than 35 years (the
first one was an Airfix Boulton
Paul Defiant.) I only added scratchbuilt exhaust
deflection plates just ahead of the windshield, commonly seen in Hurricane nightfighters (although no profile of ‘LK - ?’ seem to show
them,) masking tape seat belts and a scratchbuilt aim
device (a piece of thin wire inserted on top of the fuselage ahead of the
windshield.) I used “Mk. II eyeball” to judge the size and location of these scratchbuilt pieces, as “Mk. I eyeball” belongs to another
modeler… J.
I painted my model with Humbrol enamels, except for the oleo portion of the landing
gear legs, which was painted with MM Chrome Silver. I also used Polly Scale acrylic
Clear Gloss Finish (sadly now out of production) and Xtracrylix
Flat Varnish. Weathering was done with brushed-on powdered pastels, an enamel
wash for the panel lines and Humbrol 56 Flat aluminum
for the chipped paint effect. Kit’s decals were thick and didn’t respond to MicroSol decal softener,
fortunately I solved the problem by using Walthers’ Solvaset and by gently scoring each decal along crossing panel
lines with a sharp hobby knife while the Solvaset was
still wet.
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I’m very satisfied with my finished
model, although I would have liked to add some fading effects on the upper
surfaces, but it was impossible because I couldn’t use fresh paint and the resulting
spray pattern was too wide. In fact many of my paints have more than 15 years,
because it’s very hard and very expensive to find hobby paints in my country,
and we are limited now by our government to spend just $ 300 a year for
internet shopping.
I dedicate this model to my son David,
who’s in his 25th birthday today. He has a special affection for the
Hurricane!
Greetings from Caracas, Venezuela, a
country where the government has found a new role for Sukhoi
Su-30 Mk. 2 last generation Flanker aircraft: to scare people from the Andean
region who where in a demonstration hitting kitchenware with tablespoons. What
an absurd and abominable waste!
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Photos and text © by Orlando
Sucre Rosales